Sound Transit trains mean lots of trucks for Capitol Hill

The tunneling of Sound Transit’s light rail route beneath Capitol Hill will mean lots of trucks, increased noise and high walls around the station site, the agency told a meeting of neighborhood residents on Wednesday night.

Sound Transit is used to kudos from politicians, with Mayor Greg Nickels serving as guest conductor for reporters on trial runs of its soon-to-open rail line through the Rainier Valley.

But the agency received received an intelligent grilling from those who will be impacted by construction of its University Link extension.
“I’m concerned we’re being asked to absorb costs of this construction: We were told originally, ‘You’ll never know we’re here’,” Phil Mosek, a Capitol Hill resident, said as Sound
Transit brass looked on.

“Construction is never neat and clean and quiet: We will do all we can to minimize construction impacts,” promised Ron Endich of Sound Transit.

The University Link extension is scheduled to open in 2016, but will be under construction for six and a half years.

Its promised benefits were touted by Sound Transit. The terminus outside Husky Stadium will be three minutes away by rail from the Capitol Hill station. Downtown will be a six-minute trip.

But there are no gains without pains, as survivors of past, present and never-ending Seattle construction disruptions can attest.

As the tunnel boring gets underway, surface activity to support the tunneling will go on 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

An eight-foot wall will be built along Broadway to buffer noise, as well as a 16-foot wall along 10th Avenue.

The excavation of the tunnel is expected to begin in January of 2010 and last until December of 2012. “We anticipate two years of 24/7 construction activity to support tunneling work,” said Jeff Munnoch of Sound Transit.

The Capitol Hill light rail station will be built between January of 2013 and December of 2015.

Sound Transit tried to argue that construction will mean only a 5 to 10 decibel increase, up from 65 decibels to 70 decibels at the intersection of Broadway and John. A construction hotline – 1-888-298-2395 – will allow citizens to call in complaints over noise levels.

Carol Glickfeld, a well-known author who lives in the neighborhood, questioned the reassurances. Glickfeld worried about possible noise pollution on 11th Avenue, “a very quiet street.”

“How do you get a response from the city?” asked Glickfeld.

Another neighborhood resident asked: “How many trucks are you talking about? What is the duration?”

“We’re not sure the contractor will truck at night,” replied Munnoch.

During reconstruction of Key Arena in the early 1990’s — the project that was to provide a happy permanent home for the Seattle SuperSonics — truck traffic overran lower Queen Anne Hill.

Asked again about the volume, Munnoch replied: “We anticipate a truck leaving the site once every five minutes.” The volume will be higher near the University Station where two boring machines will be at work.

Sound Transit repeatedly cited the lack of complaints around its Beacon Hill Station, on the light rail route that is due to begin operation on July 18.

“There were very few noise complaints there: That is our goal, very few complaints here,” Endich said.
But Mocek wanted to know: “Did Beacon Hill have tall residential buildings nearby?”

It didn’t.

Before it begins construction, Sound Transit will submit a noise variance application to City Hall. The city, in turn, will put on a public meeting to hear out neighbors’ possible conflicts.

The question remains: Will Seattle city officials, gung ho to extend light rail, listen to those conflicts?

Sound Transit came armed with artists depictions of the Capitol Hill station, beautifully designed charts and literature, and even promises that its walls will contain “art elements” and promotion for local businesses. East Germany will not be transposed to Western Washington.

But Seattle witnessed prolonged disruption to 3rd Avenue during Downtown Bus Tunnel construction in the 1980’s (with a reprise in this decade), noisy hauling through residential neighborhoods during the Key Arena project, and this year’s months-long trashing of 4th Avenue.

Capitol Hill has been a hotbed of support for Sound Transit. The Stranger, a newspaper based less than two blocks from the Capitol Hill station project, supported the sales tax increase on last November’s ballot that will take light rail across Lake Washington.

Still, a tip of the hat – it did rain briefly Wednesday night on Capitol Hill – to those who turned out and grilled those who are working on the railroad. Capitol Hill isn’t to be messed with.